Grace roberts



""Nb. 625,062. Patented May "5,1899.

G. ROBERTS.

DRESS SHIELD AND FASTENER THEREFOR.

(Applicltion med Aug. 1, 1898.)

(No Model.)

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UNITED STATES {PATENT OFFICE.

GRACE ROBERTS, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y.

DRESS-SHIELD AND FASTENER THEREFOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,062, dated May 16, 1899.

Original application filed February 19, 1898 Serial No. 670,951. Divided and this application filed August 1 1898. Serial No. 687,402. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GRACE ROBERTS, of New York, (Brooklyn,) county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Dress-Shields and Fasteners Therefor, of which the following description,

in connection with the accompanying draw ings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

Dress-shields to be worn satisfactorily must be held smoothly in position in the arm-scye of the dress, and that they may be put into or taken out of the dress readily they must have suitable fastenings, and these fastenings must be so made that they will not contact with the person and so that they will hold and keep the dress-shield effectually in position in the Waist or other article in which I have aimed to and have produced fastenings for the purpose of uniting the dress-shield into the arm-scye of a dress or waist, and I have so applied the fastenings to the shields that vthey cannot c011- tact with either the arms or body. For this purpose I employ two fastenings, each different in construction and each located at different parts, one located at the lower edge of the dress-shield and the other at the upper corners of the dress-shield. The fastener 10- cated at the lower edge of the dress-shield is illustrated in my application, Serial No. 67 0,951, filed February 19, 1898, and this present divisional application is made to illustrate and claim the fastener which is located at the upper corners of the dress-shield. The fastenings used at the corners of the shield may be designated as grabs, and they are contained wholly within the shield, and they are connected with the interior of the shield by the legs of the grabs passing twice through the material of the shield, thus doing away with stitches by which to secure the grabs in place.

Figure 1 shows a dress-shield provided with my improved grabs applied to the corners of the shield to connect it with the arm-scye seam. Fig. 2 shows the grab fully open. Fig. 3 shows the grab in section on the line m, Fig. 2, and fully closed; and Fig. 4: is a like view showing the grab open.

The dress-shield A is and may be of any usual or-suitable material and shape. Preferably it will be composed of two thicknesses, the outer one of cloth and the inner one of an india-rubber or gutta-percha compound, the two thicknesses being provided at their edges with a binding ]3, or there may be a lining superimposedon the rubber.

The grab 0, one being shown very clearly in full lines in Fig. 1 at the right, is composed, as shown, of a single piece of wire, the opposite ends of said wire being bent about a central portion thereof, as at c, to form two springs, leaving legs 01, having inturned points 6, the springs being so coiled as to act normally to force the points one toward the other to automatically grab the material placed between the points when the legs have been spread apart for the introduction of the material between their pointed ends. As soon as the legs are released they automatically return into their closed position, the points crossing each other, as represented in Fig. 3, and engaging the arm-scye seam from its opposite sides, thus securely fastening the dressshield at its corners.

The grabs herein shown are of peculiar shape, and the legs present at g shoulders, and lower down they are again bent at a rather sharp angle, preferably an acute angle, at h, leaving the points 2 so located as to have an upward penetration when closed upon the arm-scye. These points may be inserted one in one and the other in the other half of the dress-shield, the legs passing from the inner side of the shield, preferably through to the outer side thereof, and then back again from the outer side through to the inner side, as represented in Fig. 1, leaving both points 6 inside the shield and turned toward each other in position to grasp the waist or dress material at the arm-scye, When the grab is thus secured in place during the manufacture of the shield, it cannot be removed by any ordinary usage, as the longitudinally-extended portions 0 brace against the crease of the fabric, resting along and against the crease on the inside, and as the legs project at right angles to the body or longitudinal portion of the grab the latter cannot possibly shift end- Wise, so as to permit the withdrawal of the legs from the fabric.

By bending the legs to form the shoulders g the space between the legs, near the spring portion thereof, is enlarged to thereby enable the grab to readily fit over and embrace any usual edge of the dress or waist at the armscye, and the entrance of the points into the dress or waist material is not interfered with by the contact of the arms with said material as the points are entering it.

The grabs herein shown are held in place simply by being inserted through the material of the dress, and they remain in such position without any further fastening whatever.

I find by bending the points of the legs to present a substantially acute angle that the grabs hold so securely that they can be detached only by hand manipulation and not by any use of the shield in a dress-waist.

Having described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A dress-shield provided at its corners inside said shield with grabs composed of springlegs having points, said legs being extended each twice through one half of the said shield at opposite sides of its upper edge, leaving said points in position when said legs are separated one from the other, to grasp a portion of an arm-scye tohold the shield in place, substantially as described.

2. The grabs composed of spring-legs, bent to present shoulders g, and further bent to present points 6, the spring parts of the leg normally acting to keep the points crossing one the other, substantially as described.

3. Agrab composed of spring-wire bent to present oppositely-turned springs, and having legs provided near said springs with op positely extended shoulders and having points bent from said legs and standing therefrom at an acute angle toward each other, substantially as described.

4. A grab composed of spring -wire bent about itself to form springs leaving extended legs, said legs having shoulders located near the springs to thereby afford a wide opening between the legs near the springs, the extremities of the legs being inturned to present points, the springs normally acting to keep the grabs closed with the points crossing, substantially as described.

5. A dress-shield provided at its corners inside the shield with grabs, each grab having a longitudinally-extended upper portion resting snugly in the crease or fold of the shield at the corners, and having spring-legs extending from the middle of said upper portion transversely thereto, each of said spring-legs being passed twice through the adjacent fabric of the shield and having at itsextremity a point turned sharply inward toward the opposite leg, leaving said points in position when said legs are separated one from the other to grasp a portion of an arm-scye to hold the shield in place, substantially as described.

6. A grab composed of spring-wire bent about itself to form longitudinally-extended spring portions 0, the ends of the wire being extended at the middle of said longitudinal portions transversely thereof, and having oppositely-projecting shoulders 51' bent at a sharp angle next to said spring portions and thence extending straight down to their points, said points being bent at a sharp angle toward each other, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GRACE ROBERTS.

Witnesses:

WM. GAsTEN, MATILDA GASTEN. 

